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THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 



A HISTORY 

OF THE STATUE ERECTED 



MAJ. JOHN MASON 



J 



A^^I) HIS COMRADES, 



An Account of the Unveiling Ceremonies. 



COMPILED BY 

THOMAS S. COLLIE K, 

SECRETARY OF THE SEW-LOXDOS rOlXTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



PIBLISHED 

BY THE COMMISSION. 

1889. 



/ 

V 



CONTE NTS 



PAGE 

The Beginning of the Statue 5 

The ^^'oRK OF the Commission 12 

The Unveiling Ceremonies 17 

Prayer. Bv the Key. Charles J. Hill, of Stonington . . Ls 

Address by Mr. Dyer, delivering the Statle to His 

Excellency the Governor 20 

The Governor's Reply, AccEi'TiNCr the Statie in the 

Name of the State 20 

Oration. By Mr. Isaac H. Bromley, of Boston .... 22 

Poem. By INIr. Thomas S. Collier, of New London ... 51 

APPENDIX. 

Letter from Mr. Frank B. (tAY, Secretary and Librarian of 

the Connecticut Historical Society 57 

Letter from Mr. Henry M. Hazen, Chairman of the Lil)rary 

Comniittee, New England Historic Genealogical Society . 59 
Letter from Mr. Amos Perry, Secretary and Librarian of the 

Rhode-Lsland Historic Society 5i» 

Letter from Mr. Thomas Bradkok-d Drew, I^ibrai-iau of tlie 

Pilgrim Society, Plymouth (JO 

Letter from Mr. S. S. Thresher, of Norwich, Conn. ... 61 



THE MA.T. JOHN MASON STATFK 



THE BEGINNING OF THE STATUE. 

The story of uational ami state testimonials of historic import^ 
liow they came to be thought of, ami by what i)rocess of action 
and argument they were evolved, is always interesting, and 
deserves perpetuation in some lasting form ; for usually sucb 
memorials are incentives to patriotism, and this is a feeling the- 
natiou and state should cultivate by all the means at their com- 
mand. 

In regard to the statue lately erected to the memory of Maj. 
John Mason and his comrades, on Pequot Hill, in the village of 
Mystic River, and town of Groton, Conn., this i& particularly 
true. It is the memorial of a most heroic action, — an action that 
admitted of no delay, and which was caiTied out with a prompt- 
ness, energy, and thoroughness that were the salvation of those 
colonists who had made New P^ngland their home. 

The menace of war had changed to its actuality. Two hundredi 
and fifty fighting men of all ages were called on to confront a 
nation numbering in its fighting men more than one thousand of 
the most cruel, daring, and courageous warriors of the red race.. 



■6 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

♦Several men, womeu, and ehiklreu of the inhabitants of Wethers- 
field and Saybrook had already experienced the nobility and 
kindness of the Pequot heart, and their ashes were stirred and 
scattered by each wind that swept past their torture-posts. 

The people assembled in council, and ninety men volunteered to 
inarch against the foe. John Mason, a soldier who had served in 
the Netherlands, — that great school of war where William and 
Maurice of Nassau, Sir Francis Vere, Lord Fairfax, Sir Philip 
Sidney, Don John, Alva, Alexander Faruese, and Spinola, battled 
and marched, — was selected to command these men, and in 
May, 1(337, set sail down the Connecticut Eiver, and, taught by 
the experience of his previous campaigning, skirted the shore 
-of the Sound until he had gained the rear of his enemy. There 
he landed, and began his march through a country whose inhabi- 
tants would, at the first appearance of disaster to his force, 
become enemies. 

But, undaunted by the discouraging environments, he kept on, 
his force reduced, by the necessity of leaving thirteen of his 
people in the small craft that had brought him to the Narra- 
gansett shore, to seventy men. 

Before him were the wilderness and a wily and courageous foe 
numbering more than ten times his force ; around him, a large 
gathering of red men, whose deceitfulness was too well known to 
admit of trust in their assertions : behind him, a settlement in 
the wilderness, over whose scattered homes the shadow of sudden 
and cruel death lay dark and gloomy. 

To him and his seventy men the assembled colonists had com- 
mitted the safety of themselves, their wives, and children. It was 
their duty to be firm and brave in the trust, no matter what fate 
lay before them ; and with unfaltering step, and a heroism that 
touched the sublime, they marched on, and fought, and con- 
■quered. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE STATUE. 



The colony was saved. Mason and liis seventy men bad met 
and overthrown the nation whose warriors had never before known 
defeat ; had met them when they were entrenched in their strong- 
hold, and had vanquished them both in desperate fight and in that 
cunning and strategy of which they were so proud. The homes 
and families of the colonists were saved ; and, thanked by the 
Assembly whose orders he had so promptly executed, and honored 
by the entire community, Mason resigned his position as com- 
mander of the expedition, to be immediately appointed commander 
of the military forces of the colony, with the rank of major, a 
position that he held during the remainder of his life. His com- 
rades were the heroes of the colony ; and whenever occasion 
presented to do them honor, their neighlwrs gladly testified their 
respect and confidence by conferring office and trust to their 
care. 

From this action followed a long peace, in which the colony 
thrived, and from which our present magnitude grew, and man- 
kind derived the immense benefit that has resulted in the change 
of this continent from savagery' to civilization. 

It is a curious fact in our history that an event so pregnant 
with results, so heroic in execution, and so beneficial to the 
colonists, both of Connecticut and New England, should so long- 
have remained without a memorial. But the agitation came ; 
students of history proclaimed the fact that this was no unim- 
portant affair, but one replete with significance ; and public thought 
was turned to it. 

The first article bringing the matter forward, that can be traced 
to its fountain-head, was that written by Mr. Amos A. Fish, pub- 
lished in the " Mystic Press," who sought to locate the site of the 
destroyed fort, and narrated such testimony to its location as was 
then existing in the neighborhood. This paper called forth many 
comments, among them a suggestion, emanating from the Rev. 



THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 



Frederick Denisoii, that the site should be marked by a bowlder 
mouumeut. A little later, Mr. Horace Clift, of Mystic River, 
published an aceouut of the traditions of his family, the owners of 
the land, as to the location of the fort. These traditions, running 
through three or more generations, elicited the warm sui)[)ort of the 
Hon. William H. Potter, of Mystic River, who wrote a lengthy 
account of them, and brought the matter before the attention of 
the New- London County Historical Society, then presided over by 
the Hon. Lafa3-ette S. Foster, of Norwich. The society took im- 
mediate interest in the matter, and appointed a committee of its 
members, consisting of the Hon. Richard A. Wheeler, of Stoning- 
ton, Hon. William H. Potter, of Mystic River, and Daniel Lee, 
Esq., of New London, to locate the site of the fort, and prepare 
such reports as were necessary. These gentlemen called in to 
their assistance such residents of the neighborhood as had made 
the matter subject of study, among them Col. Amos Clift, the 
owner of the land. The site was located by the charred remains 
of the stockade, which still exist ; and this done, the necessity of 
a monument to mark the spot was discussed, and agreed to ; and 
Capt. William Clift, President of the Mystic-river Bank, deposited 
in that institution one hundred and fifty dollars, subject to the 
order of a monument committee. Drawings were prepared ; but, 
owing to the excitement consequent on the l)eginning of our long 
array of national centennials, the matter lagged, though Messrs. 
Daniel Lee and William H. Potter made strenuous efforts to have 
something done during the lifetime of the memorial's projectors, 
and Capt. P21ihu Spicer made a generous offer to furnish a sum 
sufficient for the purpose. 

There was a divergence of opinion as to the design, however, 
and several were suggested, prominent among them being a 
combined representation of the Lulian and white races. This 
difference led to delay, and one b}' one those who had interested 



THE BEGINNING OF THE STATUE. 



themselves in the mtitter joined the silent majority, Hon. L. F. S. 
Foster, Hon. Henry P. Haven, Hon. AY. H. Starr, and Messrs. 
Daniel Lee and Charles Allyn being of the number outside of 
Mystic, and in tliat vilhige, Mr. A. A. Fish, Mr. Nathan Noyes, 
Col. Amos Clift, and others. 

This brought the matter to a further stand; but in 1886 the 
New-London County Historical Society appointed a committee to 
bring the matter before the Legislature at its 1887 session, and 
the people of Mystic gave their aid. This committee consisted of 
Messrs. Richard A. Wheeler and William H. Potter, and it was 
associated with Messrs. Horace Clift, George AV. Tingley, and 
others from the immediate vicinit}' of the fort's location. The 
committee appeared before the Legislature, at its 1887 session, 
and, though it met with much opposition, at last overcame all 
(^Ijstacles, and obtained an appropriation, the Legislature passing 
the following resolution : — 



" Resolution concerning the erection of a monument to Captain 
John Mason. 

"General Assembly, January Session, A.D. 1887. 

" Resolved by this Assembly : 

"Section 1. That three commissioners be appointed by the 
Governor to procure and cause to be placed on a bowlder monu- 
ment, when such monument shall have been erected, on Mystic or 
Pequot Hill, in the town of Grotou, Connecticut, a suitable bronze 
statue, of heroic size, of Captain John Mason. 

" Sec. 2. Said commissioners are hereby authorized to make a 
contract, in the name and on behalf of the State, with some com- 
[tetent artist, to be by them selected, for constructing such statue 
and placing it in its position as aforesaid ; provided, that the 
whole expense of the statue and placing it in position shall be 
limited to a sum not exceeding four thousand dollars ; and j^rovkled 
further, that the amount so appropriated shall be paid out of the 
funds of the fiscal year of 1888." 



10 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

Acting under the antliority thus given, the Governor, Hon. 
P. C. Lonnsbury, appointed Hon. Charles Augustus Williams, of 
New London, Charles E. Dyer, Esq., of Norwich, and Hon. 
Richard A. Wheeler, of Stonington. Mr. Williams was appointed 
chairman, and, at its first meeting, Thomas S. Collier, of New 
London, was elected the secretary of the Commission. 

The New-London County Historical Society met, and appointed 
a committee, consisting of Messrs. Richard A. AVheeler, of Ston- 
ington, Oscar M. Barber, of Mystic Bridge, Henry Bill, of 
Norwich, W. H. H. Comstock, of New London,- Rev. Charles 
J. Hill, of Stonington, Capt. John E. Williams and Horace Clift, 
of Mystic Bridge, and John J. Copp, of Groton, to solicit sul)- 
scriptious and select a proper site for the monument ; and those 
gentlemen quickly began work. Their solicitations were freely 
responded to, and they were soon able to proceed to business. 
The subscribers to the pedestal fund were — 

William Clift $150 00 

Elihu Spicer 500 00 

Elizabeth G. Stillman 100 ()(» 

C. H. Mallory 50 00 

Horace W. Fish 50 00 

C. A. Williams "25 00 

Jeremiah Halsey . . . • • . 20 00 

Henry Bill 20 OU 

William L. Palmer . ' . . . 10 00 

Charles R. Stark 10 OU 

A total of nine hundred and thirty-five dollars. 

With this sum, a bowlder, weighing twenty-three tons, was 
transported to the spot selected, and a die of cut granite was 
placed on it. The ground to place the statue in a striking position 



THE BEGINNING OF THE STATUE. 11 

had been douated by Messrs. Horace and Edimind Clift ; and the 
pedestal being completed, and a neat coping of granite placed 
aronnd it, the committee reported to the Commission that the 
pedestal was ready for inspection. 

The Commission then met at the site of the proposed monument, 
and, finding the pedestal a tine and notable structure, accepted 
the same, and began tlie work of obtaining a suitaV)le statue to 
1)1 ace thereon. 



12 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 



THE WORK OF THE C0:MMISSI0N. 

The pedestal for the monument to Maj. John Mason l>eing 
complete, and accepted by the Commissioners appointed by the 
Governor of the state to procure a memorial to be placed thereon, 
the}-, at their next meeting, invited artists to send in competitive 
desio-ns for an heroic bronze statue, suitable for this purpose. 
This was done liy advertisement and letter, and the day appointed 
for selection was September 15, 1888. At that time, five models, 
and one photographic reproduction of a model, were brought to 
the rooms of the Commission, which failed to make selection, tlie 
meeting adjourning for one week. 

Mr. Robert Kraus, who had submitted a design, withdrew from 
the competition before the adjourned date, and the competitors 
were J. Scott Hartley, of New York, Karl Gerhardt, of Hartford. 
H. K. Bush-Brown, of Paris, Alexander M. Calder, of Philadel- 
phia, and J. G. C. Hamilton, of Westerly. After due exam- 
ination and interchange of views, the model of Mr. Hamilton, 
submitted by the Smith Granite Company, of Westerly, R.I.. was 
made choice of, and the Commission entered into a contract with 
that company and its sculptor, INIr. Hamilton, whereby the hist- 
named parties agreed to furnish and place on the pedestal erected 
on Pequot Hill, Groton, an heroic bronze figure of a Puritan 
warrior, the statue to be in place by June 6, 1889. 



THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION. 13 

During the work on the model, the Commissioners visited the 
studio of Mr. Hamilton, and gave their personal attention to the 
figure and costume. Mr. Hamilton's careful study had made 
suggestion useless, however, and when the model was completed, 
application for a sum sufBcient to unveil the statue with appropri- 
ate ceremonies was made to the Legislature of 1889 and granted. 

When assured of this, the Commission made the programme for 
that occasion its study, and the following scheme was adopted : 
A procession of civic and military bodies from the central part of 
the village to the site of the statue ; music ; prayer ; the delivery 
of the statue to the state ; its acceptance ; music ; oration ; poem ; 
music ; procession to the central part of the village ; dinner to 
military and invited guests. 

It was decided to ask the Hon. John T. Wait to deliver the 
oration, and in case he could not otticiate, Mr. Isaac H. Bromle}^ 
was named as alternate. Mr. Wait was forced to decline, and 
Mr. Bromley accepted the position. The Rev. Charles J. Hill 
was invited to make the opening prayer; the Rev. G. H. Miner 
was asked to offer the benediction, and Thomas S. Collier was 
selected as the poet. The chairman of the Commission was asked 
to take charge of the order of exercises, and to make the address 
delivering the statue to the state, which was to be accepted by the 
Governor, and the Rev. D. H. Miller, D.D., was invited to ask 
the blessing at the dinner. 

These gentlemen having accepted the duties asked of them, the 
programme was satisfactorily arranged. The contractors report- 
ing the statue ready for placing in position, the Commission set 
June 6, 1889, as the date when they could attend and see it so 
placed. Mr. C. A. Williams, chairman, being obliged to visit 
California on business of importance, the Commission voted that 
Mr. Charles E. Dyer should be chairman during his absence. 
In compliance with their agreement with the Smith Granite 



14 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 



Compauy, the Commission visited Mystic River on June Gtli, iind 
saw the statue placed in position. They tlien met several gentle- 
men of the village, and witli them made arrangements for the 
unveiling ceremonies, which were set for Wednesday, June 20, 
1889. 

Gen. Edward Harland, of Norwich, to whom the marshalshii) 
had been offered, having informed the Commission that it would 
be impossible for him to serve, Gen. Charles T. Stanton, of 
Stonington, was selected, and accepted. 

The Commission then asked Capt. John K. Williams, Dr. Oscar 
M. Barber, and Horace Clift, Esq., all of Mystic Bridge and 
Mystic River, to act as a committee of entertainment, and assist 
the Commission. Col. W. W. Packer, Capt. J. Alden Rathlwne, 
Capt. George E. Tripp, and Elias Williams, Esq., were requested 
to act as marshals and assist Gen. Stanton ; and E. Burrows 
Brown, Esq., A. H. Simmons, Esq., and Col. James F. Brown 
were asked to act as a reception committee. These gentlemen 
very kindly assented, and the ceremonies of unveiling, and the 
duties of the day were all cared for. The arrangements were 
completed, and the guests invited by Thursday, June 20. 

Among the people invited were the Governor and his staff, and 
the state officers ; the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island ; the Appropriation Committee 
of the Legislature ; the senators and representatives from the 
towns and districts contiguous to the place ; representatives of the 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut state historical 
societies; and from the New-England Historic Genealogical Society; 
the American Anticpiarian Society, of Worcester ; the New-Haven 
Colony Historical Society ; the New-London County Historical 
Society ; and the Plymouth Museum and Library. Citizens of the 
state, and people interested in such matters, were generally in- 
vited, and the list of guests numbered one hundred and fifty. 



THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION. 15 

The day of the unveiling was foggy, but uot enough so to 
prevent a successful celebration. The guests, military and civic, 
reached Mj'stic l)y eleven a.m., and were quickly formed in column, 
and, headed by the Governor's Foot-Guards, proceeded to the 
site of the statue, where a platform and seats had been arranged. 
The procession begun its march at 11.35 a.m., the time set in the 
[)rograrame Ijcing 11.30. The ceremonies at the statue began at 
12.30 P.M., the hour set, and were concluded in time for the dinner 
to begin at the appointed time, 3.00 p.m. ; and at 5.30 the guests 
were all in New London, the ceremonies having passed without 
break or hindrance. 

Among the guests present and not before mentioned were the 
Hon. John T. Wait, of Norwich ; Hon. Charles A. IJussell, M. C, 
of Killingly ; Hon. Charles Francis Adams, of Boston ; Hon. 
Thomas R. Trowbridge, of New Haven ; Hon. Benjamin Stark, 
of New London ; John C. W\-man, Esq.. of Valley Falls, R. I. ; 
Elisha Turner, Esq., of Torringtou ; Rev. J. Gibson Johnson, D.D., 
of New London, and many gentlemen from Norwich, New London, 
Stonington, and the three villages of Mystic, Mystic River, and 
Mystic Bridge. 

Many descendants of Maj. John Mason were also present, 
and sliared in the hospitalities of the Commission ; and the Hon 
Richard A. Wheeler, one of the Conniiissioners, carried Maj. 
^Mason's sword on the i)latform. 

The unveiling ceremonies were universally satisfactory, and the 
statue was as unanimously decided to be a tine and suital>le repre- 
sentation of the man whose heroic deeds it connnemorated. 

The statue is a notal)le production, representing the typical 
Puritan of history, — a man ready of purpose, courageous in action, 
holding a firm faith in his mission as a propagator of the truth of 
God's Word, and of the divinely bestowed right of freedom. 

The figure is about nine feet high, with a fine poise, denoting 



16 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

•strength and action, willi the right hand grasping the lialf-dravvn 
sword. The costume is that of the colonists of the period, and 
:allows of freer scope in draper}- than the stiff garments of the 
present permit. 

The pedestal consists of a panelled die, standing on a doul)le 
base, the upper cut, the lower a natural bowlder weighing more 
than twenty-three tons. The total height of pedestal and statue 
is aliout twenty feet. 

The statue stands in a commanding position on the crest of 
Peqnot (or Mystic) Hill, at the junction of two roads, in a circle 
curbed with granite. The Sound, with its islands, the villages of 
Mystic Kiver, Mystic Bridge, and Noank, the borough of Stoning- 
ton, the picturesque valle}' of the Mystic, and the varied shore-line 
of the Sound make the view an exceptionally fine one. 

The battlefield lies a short distance north of the statue, but fi'ora 
the fact that arrow-points are found thicklv scattered all over the 
level space and gradual slope contiguous to the site of the monu- 
ment, it seems safe to infer that the fight raged even beyond the 
site selected as best suited for placing the memorial. 

The inscription on the base is : 

EKECTED A.D., 1889, 

KY THE STATE OF CONNECTICCT, 

TO COMMEMORATE THE HEROIC ACHIEVEMENT OK 

MAJOR JOHN MASON 

AND UIS COMRADES, "WHO NEAR THIS SPOT, 

IN 1637, OVERTHREW TUF. TEQIOT INDIANS, 

AND PRESERVED THE SETTLEMENTS FROM DESTRUCTION. 

The statue is indeed a worthy memorial of a most heroic 
action. 



THE UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 17 



THE UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 

The visiting companies formed as directed by the marshals, and, 
headed by Gen. Charles T. Stanton, chief marshal, be'gan the 
line of march at 11.3") a.m. The leading organization in line was 
the First Company of the Governor's Gnards, commanded by 
Maj. Kinuey, and headed by Colt's Band. The Guards escorted 
the Governor and his staff, riding in carriages. 

They were followed by a battalion of four companies of the 
Third Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, and the Machine 
Gun platoon of the regiment, which were headed by the regimental 
band. 

The Commission, orator, poet, state offlcers, members of the 
Legislature, and invited guests, filling twenty-seven carriages, 
formed the last division of the procession, and were headed by 
Tubbs's Band. 

Arriving at the statue, the invited guests took seats on the 
platform, and at 12.30 the ceremonies were opened by the Third- 
Regiment Band playing " America." 

Mr. Charles E. Dyer, the chairman of the Commission, then 
said : — 

"It is eminently approi)riatc on this spot, around which cluster 
so many hallowed recollections, consecrated by the blood of our 



18 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

forefathers, eonuectiiig intimately the present with the past, and 
bringing to mind the watchful care of onr Heavenly Father from 
the days of our colonial existence to the present hour, that the 
blessing of God should be invoked. I therefore call upon the 
Rev. Charles J. Hill, of Stoningtou, to open the exercises with 
prayer." 

PRAYER. 

Almighty and ever glorious God, we adore thee as the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, the Governor of the universe, and the 
Ruler of nations. 

AVe recognize thy hand in the foundation of this nation. Wc 
acknowledge our belief that thou didst bring our fathers across 
the sea ; guide them through the wilderness ; deliver them from 
their enemies ; and lead them by a way they knew not unto the 
city of habitation. 

One generation shall praise th}- works to auotlier, declare the 
might of thy terrible acts, and utter the memory of thy great 
goodness. Thou didst liring out fatliers to the borders of this 
sanctuary, even to this mountain which tliy right hand had pur- 
chased ; thou didst cast out the heathen before them, and divide 
them an inheritance by line, and make them to dwell in safety. 
Oh that men would praise the Lord for liis goodness ! and for 
his wonderful works to the children of men I 

thou who hast been our dwelling-place in all generations ! 
grant that we may dedicate this monument and unveil this statue 
not for worship, not for sacrifice, not for human glory, but as a 
witness to tliis generation, and a testimony to our children's chil- 
dren of our faith in the God of our fathers, who saved them from 
destruction, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies. 
O God ! we dedicate it to thee. 



PRAYER. 19 

Let it be to all the people a memorial of tli}' faithfulness — a 
token of thy mercy — a pledge of thy help in every time of need. 
Let it be an acknowledgement of our gratitude to those who 
fought our l)attles, and saved our fathers from death and our 
mothers from suffering. May it teach ns to be loyal to duty, 
brave in times of trouble, and heroic in saving those who are in 
danger ! 

O thou who art merciful ! we confess that all our deeds are 
marred by ignorance and weakness, even when they are not defiled 
by sin ; and we acknowledge with shame and confusion of face 
that we have not been faithful to the high trust thou didst commit 
to us, when thou didst send our fathers across the sea to teach the 
ignorant savages thy Gospel, and declare unto them the true 
character of the Great Spirit whom the}' ignorantly worshipped ; 
but hear, Thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and pardon, we 
beseech thee, the sins of the penitent people. We thank thee for 
a clearer conception of the Gospel of Salvation, and pray that its 
spirit, abiding in our hearts, may lead us to be kind to the weak, 
just to the unfortunate, merciful to the erring, and atone, by an 
enlarged Christian benevolence, for the wrongs that may have been 
done in the past. Let schools, and institutions of industry, and 
churches, reared by a penitent nation, be memorials of our obliga- 
tions to " the children of the forest," into whose heritage we have 
entered. And so we pray thee, let the memory of the past in- 
spire our gratitude and promote our love for one another. And 
may the time speedil}" come when the Gospel of Him who died for 
the redemption of the world shall fill the whole land with peace 
and good-svill to men, and the hope of life everlasting! 

And unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy 
Ghost everlasting thanks shall l)e given. And let all the people 
say, Amen. 



20 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

Mr. Dyer then made the following address, delivering the 
statue to his Excellency the Governor : — 

"Your Excellency, — We are assembled to participate in 
exercises appropriate to the completion of a statue erected in 
memory of the heroic Maj. John Mason, who with his comrades, 
near this spot, won a signal victory over their savage foes a little 
more than two hundred and fifty years ago. Pequot Hill is a 
locality that will he ever memorable. Here it was that the 
decisive blow was struck by wliich the salvation of the infant 
colony was secured, and the settlemeuts were preserved from 
annihilation. 

"The commissioners to whom the responsibility was assigned 
to ' procure and cause to be placed on a bowlder monument, on 
Mystic (or Pequot) Hill, in the town of Groton, Connecticut, a 
suitable bronze statue of heroic size of Maj. .John Mason,' have 
discharged the duty committed to their care. 

"The structure is complete, and we now deliver it to you, sir, 
the honored chief magistrate and official representative of the 
state ; and may the God of nations, who guided and sustained 
him whose memory and whose deeds we seek this day to perpetuate 
in granite and in bronze, watch over and protect our beloved com- 
monwealth and this united, happy, and prosperous nation, through- 
out the years to come ; and may we, the citizens thereof, relying on 
his unerring wisdom, be e\cr mindful of the motto emblazoned on 
tlie ])auner of our state, (^ui Transtulit Susfinet.'' 

To this the (Governor replied in the following words : — 

"Memorials hastily erected to commemorate patriotic deeds or 
distinguished services are not always the best evidence of the 
gratitude of a nation or state, or unquestioned test of true merit. 



THE governor's REPLY. 21 

The deeds aud services which are intended to recall the history of 
a nation, written or unwritten, transmitted from one generation to 
another, recounting the unseltish devotion and seif-sacificing, 
patriotic zeal of her children, are broader and higher ground from 
which to form a judgment of the men and scenes of the times in 
which they were participants. We have met here to-day, after a 
lapse of more than two centuries, to recall to our minds a man so 
prominently identified with the history of the little colony which 
developed into the broad and prosperous State of Connecticut, 
that his acts and daring deeds have survived these centuries and 
become part of the history of the state. A grateful people, 
through its government, directed this memorial statue to be erected 
here amid scenes of which Maj. John Mason was the leader and 
the daring spirit. The skilful hand of the designer has well dis- 
played, in silent bronze, the brilliant, daring Indian fighter. 
Mr. President, on behalf of the state, I accept the charge of this 
monument, and extend hearty thanks for the fidelity with which 
the Commission has discharged its trust." 

^Music by Tubbs's Band followed, and Mr. Dyer then said : — 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, — It gives me pleasure to introduce 
to you, as the orator of this occasion, a native of New-London 
County, a man whom you all know, — Mr. Isaac H. Bromley, of 
Boston." 



22 THE MAJ, JOHN MASON STATUE. 



ORATION. 

For fourteen years, begiuuing with the-nineteenth of Ai)ril, 187o, 
anniversary of the first bloodshed of the Revolution at Lexington , 
and ending last month with a fitting celel)ration of the inauguration 
of the first President of the Republic, we have been passing througii 
a series of centennial observances. For all the great initial points 
in the nation's history, we have set up our century-posts, while 
around them we have ranged our memory-tents and built our 
solemn altars. The fourteen years between the shot fired b^' the 
embattled farmers — "heard round the world" — and the salvo of 
artillery that punctuated the inaugural oath of the first President, 
were filled with the travail pains which ended in the bringing forth 
of a man-child among the nations. We have just finished cele- 
brating that birthday of fourteen years. 

During this period, the minds of sixty million people have been 
occupied with memories of those whom they fondly call " the 
fathers" ; Avith reverent admiration for their virtues, lofty appreci- 
ation of their sacrifices, and boundless gratitude for the priceless 
legacy they left to their descendants. It is doubtless true tliat, 
looking somewhat through the medium of our own emotions down 
the long perspective of a hundred years, we have magnified events 
that in their day seemed but ordinary, and glorified men who, to 
their contemporaries, were common mortals. But liave we erred in 



ORATION. 



this? Is the glamour which a himdred years have thrown over 
these events more misleading than the mists through which contem- 
poraries viewed them ? Is the halo with which we surround our 
heroes more unreal than the canvas of the artist who, with his 
sitter close at hand, only painted him skin deep ? 

If our judgments of the long-gone past and the actors in it are 
not characterized by the cold, hard accuracy of scientific statement, 
is it not also true that only in the historic perspective do we 
discern the true proportions of character and the real relations of 
events ? 

The fathers builded indeed better than they knew. Of the 
full meaning of their work, and of their own future fame as its 
authors, none of them had an}' adequate conception, and but few 
had dimly dreamed. Neither the}' nor their work could be 
fairly judged in their own time, for with all the success that had 
attended their endeavors, the fulfilment of their highest hopes in 
the establishment of the Union, it must be remembered that they 
saw but the beginning of an experiment. Onl}' in the light of a 
hundred 3'ears of trial can the work of the fathers, and the 
fathers themselves, be fairly judged. Looking back across the 
3'ears, we see their figures stand out, clear cut, massive, dominant, 
larger than human, on the sky-line of our history. We know now, 
what the}' did not, the vast results that trembled in the balance 
against their fortitude and faith ; and in that knowledge we have 
said in the pride of our ancestry and the fervor of our gratitude, 
"All these were 'Plutarch's men.'" It is not we who have 
idealized them, but that silent, ceaseless process in the crucible of 
time that never fails to purge the characters of the men who greatly 
served their age of all the dross of human frailt}', leaving only the 
pure gold of their lives for our admiration. Onl}' our ideals are 
real. For that alone lives which we make live by remembering, 
and that only is dead which has been forgotten. 



24 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

It SO happens that, at the close of this series of centenary anni- 
versaries of the formative period of the government, we are bidden 
by this occasion to take a more extended retrospect ; to review 
some of the events, and to consider tlie cliaracter of another of 
"Plutarch's men," of a still earlier time. We shall see that 
largely through what happened on this hill two hundred and fifty- 
two years ago, and through the courage, skill, and promptitude in 
emergencies of the man whose memory we are here to honor, the 
whole succession of events we have so lately commemorated was 
made possible. 

Just here upon this spot the tide was turned that, with gathering 
force, threatened to overwhelm the small beginnings of that New- 
England civilization which a hundred and fifty years later became 
the vital force of a new nation. And it was he whose memorj- we 
are honoring to-day who in the crisis of the fight gave the decisive 
word. Fearful word it was ; it meant relentless fire and indiscrim- 
inate slaughter ; but it said " Thus far, no farther," to the refluent 
waves of barbarism, and cleared the way to fort}' years of peace. 

Jolm ]Mason w\as born in England about 1601. Neither the 
place nor the date of his birth is precisel}- known, nor do we know 
anything definite of his family. Of the influence of local surround- 
ings, hereditary tendencies, and early associations upo;i the devel- 
opment of his character, we are accordingl}- left almost entirely to 
conjecture. We may well suppose that he first saw the light in 
one of those counties in the North of England, — Lincoln, York, 
or Nottingham, — where such men as Robinson, Brewster, and 
Bradford were bred, and that his youth was influenced by the 
atmosphere of their pious teachings and austere lives. Or it 
may be that his first infant cry was heard somewhere on the 
banks of Severn, whose waters two hundred ^-ears before had 
prefigured the dissemination of Wyckliffe's doctrines when they 
bore his dust to the spreading sea. However that may be, we 



ORATION. 25 

cannot be far wrong in assnming that his first breath was of an 
air vital witli protest and dissent and strenuous assertion of indi- 
vidual freedom of thought, belief, and speech ; that he inherited 
from a vigorous though obscure ancestr}' his sound mind and 
sinew}- frame ; that his training was strict and severe ; and that 
his associations were with that common people of England who 
stood up for their own against the menaces of the Stuart kings in 
Parliament and Prince Rupert's fiery charge on Marston Moor. 

The forward movement of the world in historj- is b}' cj'cles. To 
long intervals of rest and inaction succeed periods of stormy 
dispute, clashing of interests, social upheavals, political revolu- 
tions, tempests and tumults of war. To these convulsions succeed 
again the rest and rust of peace, too often paid for by intellectual 
stagnation, deadened patriotism, and moral degeneracy. It is not 
in tlie slothful contentment of these stagnant intervals that life is 
most worth living. They furnish little illumination for the pages 
of history, evoke no heroes or martyrs to elevate and ennoble the 
race by grand examples of courage and self-sacrifice. 

In our own time, who that lived in and was part of the great 
contention that covered so man}' years of violent controversy and 
hot debate culminating in civil war, does not thank God that his 
lot was cast in such a stirring and eventful time? What good 
fortune it was to the contemporaries of Washington and Putnam 
and C4reen, of the signers of the Declaration and the authors of 
the Constitution, to have walked abreast of that procession of 
events in such grand company ! 

It was the good fortune of John INIason to enter on the stage of 
action, not in the piping times of peace when the king ruled 
undisputed, the peasant meekly bore his yoke, and the world was 
stagnant with content, but in a time that bristled with questionings 
and quivered in every fibre with the tokens of a new revelatioii 
and a new birtli. 



26 THE MAJ, JOHN MASON STATUE. 

It was eight}' years since Martin Luther had uttered his im- 
mortal answer: " Here stand I; I can none other; God help me. 
Amen." The protest had made little stir in the visible England 
which seemed so pliant to "Wolse}', so submissive to the king. 
But though the momentar\- restlessness to which Wycklitte had 
quickened the thought of England a hundred and fift}' ^-ears before 
seemed to have utterl}' disappeared, he had not, as the result 
showed, scattered seed on barren ground. The immediate impulse 
which proceeded from him had mdeed ceased, but for a hundred 
years thereafter manuscript copies of his translations and tracts 
were in circulation among the common people, who met in groups 
to hear them read, or passed them on from hand to hand. The 
foundation for protest lay ver}' deep in English soil. When Henry, 
pressed by political necessities, entered the lists in defence of the 
Pope and against Luther, though he gained for himself the title 
of "Defender of the Faith," outside the narrow circle of his 
courtiers and dependents he was unheard and unheeded. But 
when, a little later, he made his stand against papal supremacy, 
and asserted for himself the Headship of the Church, the common 
people of England, in whom the teachings of W^-ckliffe had been 
slowly taking root through two hundred j'ears, smothering their 
indignation and disgust at the shameful motives of the king, and 
seeing only in the whole transaction the rescue of the English 
government and people from subjection to papal domination, gave 
him at once, and heartily, their sympathy and support. 

But neither political nor religious freedom was to be established 
in the lust of a royal liluebeard. The people had only changed 
masters. The struggle against absolutism was to go on for 
another hundred years, until a king's head lay upon the block ; 
and the practice of religious toleration was to wait enforcement 
until, in a land then almost unknown, a colony of refugees from 
religious intolerance should drive out from among them, for a 



ORATION. 27 



difference in belief, the founder of a state wliere "soul liberty'^ 
was first established. 

Tlie small gain secured to freedom of opinion b}- Henry's breach 
with the Pope seemed hopelessly lost in the bloody reign of Mary ; 
but Elizabeth's accession to the throne had revived the hopes of 
the persistent heretics who had outlived Mary's persecutions. 
P^lizabeth's reign, so fruitful of results of tremendous import to 
England and to all mankind, was now, at John Mason's birth, 
within tw^o Aears of its close. Never in the annals of the kingdom 
had there been such intellectual activity, such rapid growth and 
expansion of the mind and heart of the people as in the reign just 
ending. The issue raised by Luther was still under discussion, 
and the professed believers in a gospel of peace and good-will 
were burning, shooting, and torturing one another over the ques- 
tion which of the two parties into which Christendom was divided 
was the rightful representative of that gospel's author. England, 
though she had stood under arms on all her coasts at the approach 
of the Armada, had not felt the contact of actual war. But she 
had sent her soldiers over into the Netherlands to fight against 
Philip, and these had brought back on their return a zeal for the 
new religion quickened b}' their association wiih the Nether- 
landers, and a hatred of the papacy intensified by what they had 
witnessed of the cruelties of Alva. 

It was onl}' natural that the intellectual movement of the period 
should in these conditions revolve largel}- round religious themes. 
The book most circulated and read among the common people was 
the Bible, newly translated by Tyndale. With the unusual interest 
attaching to it from its having been so long forbidden, and the sub- 
ject of so wide and fierce contention, we may well imagine the eager 
curiosity with which they fell upon the stirring recital of the trials 
and triumphs of the chosen people in the Old Testament, and the 
l>urning zeal with which they debated the doctrines of the New. 



28 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

Nor was it strange that to these people, painfull}- working out 
their own deliverance amid cruel persecutions and blood}- wars, 
the story of the chosen people, of their fierce and uncompromising 
spirit, their merciless extermination of the enemies of Jehovah, and 
the miraculous interferences bj- which they triumphed over their 
foes, should have a special charm. For the}-, too, were a chosen 
people, and there were not lacking seers among them in whose 
bosoms throbbed the consciousness that their Passover was at 
hand, and that for them also there waited the parted waters and 
the promised land. They were of the Mosaic dispensation. It 
was not the peaceful slope of Olivet that inspired their meditations 
or occupied their view. It was Sinai that always stood over them, 
black and gloomy with clouds, threatening with its thunders and 
terrible with its swift lightnings. And we shall see them before 
long, slaying their Amorites hip and thigh, smiting them with the 
sword until none are left alive, and then possessing their land. 

The great religious contention was at its height when John 
Mason was born. Two j-ears after P^lizabeth's death, Grotius 
wrote that theology ruled in England. It occupied the minds and 
filled the thought of king and people to the exclusion of almost 
everything else. A historian of the time writes : "Sunday after 
Sunday, da}- after da}-, the crowds that gathered round the Bible 
in the nave of St. Paul's, or the family group that hung on its 
words in the devotional exercises at home, were leavened with a 
new literature. Legend and annal, war-song and psalm, state- 
roll and biography, the mighty voices of prophets, the parables of 
evangelists, stories of mission journeys, of perils by the sea and 
among the heathen, philosophic arguments, apocalyptic vision, — 
all were flung broadcast over minds unoccupied for the most i)art 
by any rival learning." 

So much, in briefest outlines, of the intellectual environment in 
which he first drew breath, and of the influences which shaped his 



ORATION. 29 



career, is necessary to a proper uuderstanding of Mason's character 
and conduct. 

Our first knowledge of him — and that but vor}' scant}' — is as a 
lieutenant under Sir Thomas Fairfax, serving in the Low Coun- 
tries. How long he remaine<l there we do not know. He could 
not have served long with Fairfax, as the latter's service, whicli 
was somewhat in the nature of a youthful adventure, was but for 
the few months of the siege of Bois-le-Duc, — from April to July, 
1630. That he was of good extraction and a young man of 
promise is indicated b}* his rank of lieutenant. The fact that 
Sir Thomas Fairfax remembered him some fourteen or fifteen 
years later, and sent to him across the ocean an urgent request to 
return to England and accept a Major General's commission in 
the Parliamentary Ai-mv, is proof that under the eye of Sir Thomas 
he had demonstrated his courage and capacit}'. Lord Fairfax was, 
even at that age, a keen observer and a shrewd judge of men, and 
being himself one of the ablest and pluckiest soldiers of his age, 
he knew a soldier when he saw him. 

If Mason was in the Low Countries with Fairfax in 1630, he 
could not have been in Warham's company, which arrived at 
Massachusetts in May of that year and presently fixed themselves 
at Mattapan, — afterwards called Dorchester. That he was among 
the earliest accessions to the Dorchester colony is apparent, how- 
ever, from the fact of his appearing in December, 1632, as engaged 
under a commission from the governor and magistrates of Massa- 
chusetts to search for a pirate named Bull, who had for some time 
been harassing the settlers on the coast. 

Two years later, he was one of a committee appointed to plan 
the fortifications of Boston harbor, and was presently in charge of 
the erection of a battery on Castle Island, from which it would 
appear that lie had had some experience in engineering. 

In INLirch, 1635, he represented Dorchester at the General 



80 THE MA.l. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

Court. Later in the same 3'ear, it is probable that he accompanied 
the party of adventurers who made the difficult journe}' to the 
banks of the Connecticut, opening the way for the larger emigra- 
tion which, with Hooker and Stone, in June, 1636, settled at 
Windsor. 

It was not until after long and heated discussion — all discus- 
sion was hot in those days — and a close vote of the General 
Court, that permission was granted for this emigration. From 
what happened later, from the character and subsequent career of 
Hooker, and from the circumstance that the Connecticut emi- 
grants, in the organization of their government, did not found the 
civil franchise on church membership, it may be safely inferred 
that a prime motive for this emigration was the desire to establish 
a social system in which there should be an entire separation 
between church and state. The part taken in it by John Mason 
discloses the bent of his miud in the direction of freedom of 
conscience. 

At Windsor, as everywhere else in New England where colonies 
were established, the church pastor was the leader. Hooker was 
the prominent figure and chief factor in the early life of the 
Windsor colony and of the state. For it was almost purely 
a religious movement that colonized New England ; the colonists 
were, in fact, religious exiles. And if, in the clearer light of 
to-day, the founders of New England seem to have been at times 
fanatical, bigoted, and intolerant, let us remember with profound 
gratitude ihat we are largely indebted to the rigor of discii)line 
and severity- of training which these qualities engendered for the 
pure stock and distinctive New-England character of which we 
are so proud. The half-breed races of Spanish America on one 
side, and French Canada on the other, are illustrations of the 
social conditions from which the rigid morality of the Puritan 
delivered us. 



OKATION. 31 



The immediate neighborhood of the Mathers, and Brewsters, 
and Bradfords, could not have been especially attractive to persons 
of a cheerful temper or livelj' disposition. The steady diet of the 
psalm-singers was the wrath of God. To indulge in pleasantry 
under such a dispensation was unpardonable levity, to be visited 
with censure, and possibly with stripes. Doubtless the company 
of ^Morton and his fellow roysterers at Merry Mount had largely 
the advantage in point of liveliness and gayety. But these were 
two extremes, and there was no mean. They could not get on 
together. It was not quite in the spirit of what, in our da}-, is 
called libert}', but it was clearly a good day's work, when Miles 
Standish took Morton b}' the collar, faced him towards England, 
and broke up his hold. The psalm-singer stayed. It was well he 
did, for in that Puritan strain, which was simph^ the old Saxon at 
white heat with religious zeal, and hardened with the hammer of 
religious persecution, lay all that makes the nation great and 
prosperous. 

The three settlements, Hartford, Windsor, and Wetherslield, 
which then constituted Connecticut, contained in 1636 about eight 
hundred persons. They were surrounded b}- tribes of savage 
Indians, estimated at from tlu'ee thousand to four thousand, most 
of whom were unf riendl}-, some actively hostile. From their near- 
est civilized neighbors they were fourteen daj-s distant, bej'oud the 
hope of any succor against sudden attack. From the Connecticut 
River to the Pawcatuck, the country was roamed over — the 
pseudo-philanthropist will observe the distinction between roaming 
over and occupying — b}' the Pequots and Mohegans ; the country 
east of the Pawcatuck was claimed b}' the Narragansetts. Sassa- 
cus, chief of the Pequots, had under him twenty-six sachems, 
one of whom was Uncas, of the Mohegans. Jealousy between 
the latter and his chief had caused bad blood, so that Uncas was 
quite ready when the issue came to side with the whites against 



32 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE, 

Sassacus ; and questions of boundary had kept the Pequots and 
Narragansetts arra3'ed against each other. So it happened, or, as 
the colonists devoutly l)elieved, was specially ordered by Provi- 
dence, that Sassacus, in the war which soon broke out, was left 
without the aid of two natural allies, with either of whom he 
could have exterminated the white settlers of New England. 

It is useless to deny that the whites had given good cause for 
the hostility of the aborigines. It was a real grievance, and not 
innate treacher}' and vindictiveuess, that lay at the root of the 
whole business. It dated from Thomas Hunt's seizure and sale 
into slaver^', in 1614, of twenty-four inoffensive Indians who had 
trusted in his honor. The vindictive feeling aroused by this 
brutal outrage, which had been somewhat alla^'ed in the breast of 
Canonicus by tlae fair dealing of the Plymouth colonists, burned 
unqueuched in the bosoms of Sassacus and the Pequots, who made 
no discrimination between the unprincipled adventurer of 1614 and 
the peaceably-disposed settlers of the later period. 

In 1634, Captain Stone, a trader from Virginia, having put into 
Connecticut River in a small vessel, was killed with his Avhole 
crew by a party of Pequots. The demand of the Massachusetts 
authorities for the surrender of the murderers was met by Sassacus 
with excuses, prevarications, and delays, which continued through 
two years, when the killing of John Oldham, of Watertown, 
Mass., by a party of Pequots from Block Island, brought matters 
to an issue and war was formally declared. 

It was not a war, however, that the Massachusetts colonists had 
any special cause to be proud of. An expedition was fitted out, 
consisting of ninety men, in three small vessels, under command 
of John Endicott, which, sailing away to Block Island, attacked 
the Indians there, killing some fourteen of them, burning their 
houses, cutting down their corn, and destroying their canoes. 
They then proceeded west to the mouth of the Pcquot — now the 



ORATION. 



Thames — River, where the}' burned more houses and destro3ed 
more crops, after which they returned to Boston. Capt. Lion 
Gardiner, in command of a garrison established at the mouth of 
the Connecticut, accurately described the expedition and its 
results, when he said: "You came hither to raise these wasps 
about my ears, and then you will take wings and fly away." 

In the three towns of Wetherslield, Hartford, and Windsor 
were about two hundred and fifty white men capable of bearing 
arms. They were surrounded by Indian tribes, who, between the 
Hudson and Narragansett Bay could muster, if united, four or five 
thousand warriors. Of these, from seven hundred to one thousand 
Avere Pequots under Sassacus, now in open hostility. The wasps 
were raised and Endicott had sailed awa3^ 

The wily Sassacus made it his first endeavor to unite all the 
Indian tribes in a war of self-preservation, which meant exter- 
mination, against the colonists. To this end, he brought himself 
to send ambassadors to his ancient enemies, the Narragansetts, to 
induce them to come into the alliance. Meanwhile, the Pequots 
in scattered bands were harassing the Connecticut settlers, way- 
laying and killing them with the most savage barbarities. 

It will not be amiss to observe here that the Pequot embassy to 
the Narragansetts was defeated of its purpose through the active 
and self-sacrificing labors of Roger Williams ; his infiuence with 
the Narragansetts, among whom he lived and with whom he had 
established relations of friendship and confidence, being sufficient 
to restrain them from following Sassacus. In a letter to Capt. 
Mason he says: "Three days and nights my business forced me 
to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose 
hands and arms methought reeked with the blood of mj^ own 
C'0untr3'men, murdered and massacred by them on Connecticut 
River, and from whom I could not but nightly look for their bloody 
knives at my own throat also." Bancroft gives Roger Williams 



34 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

the credit for "dissolving the conspirac}- " against the whites. 
He adds : " It was the most intrepid achievement in the war, as 
perilous in its execution as it was fortunate in its issue." So 
the man whom the Massachusetts colonists had sent into exile 
was able to save them from the extermination which had sureh' 
been their fate had the Pequot-Narragansett alliance been 
formed. 

Some thirty persons belonging to the settlements on Connecticut 
River having fallen victims to Indian barbarity, and it being 
manifest that the Pequots had entered upon a war of extermina- 
tion, the Connecticut colonists were confronted with the problem, 
in its most practical and concrete form, of the survival of the 
fittest. This situation explains the subsequent action of Capt. 
Mason. What followed that action amply justified it. 

The Pequot war was the first emergency the General Court of 
Connecticut was called to meet. The aid of the 3Iassachusetts 
and Plymouth colonies, which had "raised the wasps," naturally 
was solicited. Massachusetts, at a special sessiou of its General 
Court, responded with an order for a levy of one hundred and sixty 
men and the sum of £600. Plymouth ordered a levy of forty men. 
Connecticut raised a force of ninety men, forty-two of whom 
were from Hartford, thirty from Windsor and eighteen from 
Wethersfield, and placed them under command of Capt. Mason. 

The formal declaration of war by the General Court of Connec- 
ticut was on jNTay 1. On May 10, Mason, having completed the 
levy, started with his expedition down the river, the intention 
being to carry out the declaration literally by making an "offensive 
war" against the Pequots. Hence they were to be attacked in 
their stronghold here. 

On the seventeenth of May, they arrived at Saybrook, where 
they remained wind-bound until the nineteenth. Saybrook was 
then simply a fortification with a small garrison under conuuand 



OEATION. 35 

of Capt. Lion Gardiner, whicli had lately been re-enforced bj' 
Capt. Underbill with nineteen men from Massachusetts. 

Mason's army of ninety men was considered so absurdly inade- 
quate to the task set before it that the trained soldiers, Gardiner 
and Underbill, at first refused to send any of their own men upon 
the expedition. Finally, Underbill with twenty of the garrison 
joined Mason, and twenty' of Mason's original ninety were sent 
back for the protection of their own homes and families. 

At this point a question arose upon the decision of which, as 
afterwards clearly appeared, the fate of the whole movement de- 
pended. It was in its essence a question of obeying instructions. 
Not only were the^' limited b}' the terms of their coimuission to 
landing in Pequot River, but the order had been repeated by a 
letter of instructions sent to Saj^brook. But Capt. Mason, ha\dng 
made up his mind upon information received after leaving Hartford 
that the Pequots were aware of this design and prepared to meet 
them, was disposed to take the responsibilit}' of disregarding his 
instructions in this particular and disembarking at a point farther 
east. "Our council," says Mason, " all of them except the captain, 
were at a stand and could not judge it meet to sail to Narragau- 
sett," in the face of such positive and repeated instructious to land 
at Pequot River. 

Capt. Mason was a profoundly religious man, but there was 
something like worldly wisdom in his piety when, as he says, 
^'Apprehending an exceeding great hazard in so doing," he 
" earnestly desired Mr. Stone that he would commend our condi- 
tion to the Lord that night to direct how and in what manner we 
should demean ourselves in tliat respect, he being our chaplain and 
lying aboard our pink, the captain on shore." It is safe to say 
that before taking himself ashore, as he no doubt did to avoid the 
suspicion of having unduly influenced the chaplain, he took good 
care that Mr. Stone should have such knowledge of the facts as to 



36 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

be able to lay them intelligently before the Lord. At any rate, 
the chaplain's prayer was answered in accordance with Capt. Ma- 
son's view of the situation, and very early the next morning, by 
unanimous agreement of the council, the expedition set sail for 
Narragansett. 

The strength of Mason's character, his manly self-reliance, and 
his patient self-command, are finely illustrated by this episode. The 
habit of his mind from his training as a soldier in the Low Coun- 
tries under that famous disciplinarian. Sir Thomas Fau-fax, was 
that of strict subordination and unquestioning obedience ; but here 
was an emergency which called for something more. He must 
take the risk himself of disobeying orders to save the cause, or, 
avoiding responsibility, put the cause in serious peril by meek 
obedience. He chose the former. He did it with no less modesty 
than firmness. In his history of the Pequot war written thirty 
years later, he seems more anxious that it should not be regarded 
as a precedent than to take any credit for it to himself. After 
relating the transactions just described, he quaintly says: "I 
declare this not to eucourage any soldiers to act beyond their com- 
mission or contrary to it, for in so doing they run a double hazard. 
There was a great commander in Belgia who did the state great 
service in taking a city, but by going be^'oud his commission lost 
his life. His name was Grubbenduuk." 

Leaving Saybrook on Friday, the nineteenth, they reached their 
destination in the evening of Saturday, the twentieth. The next 
day being Sunday, they remained on board their vessels, religiously 
keeping the Sabbath. A storm coming up prevented their landing 
until the evening of Tuesday, at which time they disembarked at 
the foot of what is now called Tower Hill, overlooking Point 
Judith. 

On Wednesday morning, Capt. Mason called upon Canonicus, 
the chief sachem of the Narragan setts, with whom peace had been 



ORATION. 37 



firmly established through the diplomac}' of Roger Williams, and 
in courtly phrase explaining his sudden intrusion asked permission 
to pass through the Narragansett country on his way to punish 
the enemies of the Narragansetts, the Pequots. Canonicus an- 
swered, giving the desired permission and approving the design, 
but adding that their numbers " were too weak to deal with the 
enemy, who were very great captains and men skilful in war." 

Here Mason received a message from Roger Williams, announc- 
ing the arrival at Providence of a ^Massachusetts party of forty 
men under Capt. Patrick, and requesting him to wait until they 
came up. But, with Mason, celerity of movement whereby he 
could take the enemy b}' surprise was of more importance than 
reinforcements. It is not an improbable inference from what 
subsequently happened, that Capt. Mason knew something about 
Patrick and preferred going on without him. It seems " there fell 
out a great contest" between Patrick and Underbill shortly after 
the two parties united at the mouth of the Pequot. A few years 
later, this same Capt. Patrick, having quarrelled with the Massa- 
chusetts people, went over to the Dutch at New Amsterdam and 
put himself under their protection. 

Early Wednesday morning. Mason, with his seventy-seven white 
men — thirteen having been left in charge of the boats — about 
sixty Mohegans, and two hundred or more Narragansetts, took up 
his march against the Pequots. At the end of the day's march they 
came to a fort occupied b}- the Niantics, a tribe of the Narragan- 
setts, it being on the frontier of the Pequots. These Indians showed 
at first an unfriendly disposition. Mason says, "They carried 
very proudly towards us ; hot permitting any of us to come 
into their fort." The Captain accordingly set a strong guard 
around the fort and ordered that no one should pass out during the 
night ; a prudent precaution against the possibility of information 
being conveyed to the Pequots. Mason had no confidence in 



38 THE MA J. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

Indian good faith ; he distrusted these Niantics, notwithstanding 
they were at war with the Pequots against whom he was march- 
ing. To him the Indian was a very squalid and repulsive 
creature externall}', with a treacherous disposition in whicli cow- 
ardice and blood-thirstiness were equally' mixed ; a verj' different 
figure from that which excites our admiration in the sculptor's 
marble or on the painter's canvas, or that attracts our S3'mpath3' 
in the pages of romance. He saw him in the concrete : a stealth}' 
wild beast lurking in thickets, with but one ambition higher than 
slaughter, and that to torture his victim with refinements of cruelt}' 
before killing him. The earl}' Puritan was somewhat deficient in 
artistic sense. It probably never occurred to John Mason, seeing 
this untutored child of nature with drawn bow or raised tomahawk, 
that the pose was dramatic. The first swift suggestion was that a 
funeral was impending, and his chief and immediate care was that 
it should not be his own. 

Capt. Lion Gardiner, in command at Saybrook, had even less 
confidence in Indian professions than Mason. He would not trust 
the Mohegans — sixty of whom with Uncas had come to Saybrook 
by land from Hartford to join the expedition against their enemies 
the Pequots — until a party of them, sent out against a straggling 
band of Pequots, returned with one prisoner and the heads of five 
others. Chaplain Stone also distrusted the Indians. Capt. 
Underbill relates that going on board the chaplain's vessel, he 
heard him wrestling in prayer with tlie Lord that some sign of the 
good faith of the Mohegans might be given before they were 
taken on board. When he rose from his knees, Underhill told 
him his praj'er was alread}' answered, giving him the news of the 
return of the Mohegans with their liloody trophies. 

But Mason, who was a discriminating judge of character, as well 
of the Indians as of his own countr3'nien, reposed much confidence 
in Uncas. So when on the next morning some two hundred of the 



ORATION. 39 



Niantics joined the little arm}', making about five hundred Indians 
in all, while the}' were boasting how brave the}' were and how many 
Pequots they would kill, he quietly asked the Mohegan chief what 
he thought the Indians would do. Uncas answered that the Nar- 
ragansetts would all leave, but that he himself would never desert 
the English. "And so it proved," says Mason; "for which 
expressions," he continues, " and some other speeches of his, I 
shall never forget him. Indeed, he was a great friend and did 
great service." 

It may be mentioned in passing that Mason's friendship for 
Uncas continued unbroken till his death in 1672. Uncas survived 
him ten years, and with his tribe was always a loyal friend and 
faithful ally of the whites. 

At eight o'clock Thursday morning, Mason and his seventy -seven 
white men, with their noisy and demonstrative escort of five hun- 
dred savages, were on the march. The weather, it being the 
fifth of June in our calendar, was very hot and oppressive ; there 
was a lack of provisions, and some of Mason's men fainted by the 
way. A march of twelve miles brought them to the Pawcatuck 
River, where they " stayed some small time," Mason says, and 
" refreshed themselves with their mean commons." Being now on 
the borders of the Pequot country, the boastful Narragansetts 
began to change their tune, " manifesting great fear," says Mason, 
"insomuch that many of them returned, although the}' had fre- 
quently despised us, saying that we durst not look upon a Pequot, 
but themselves would perform great things." 

Three miles beyond the Pawcatuck, they halted at a field lately 
planted and held a council. Here they learned that the Pequots 
had two forts " almost impregnable," but, says Mason, " we were 
not at all discoui'aged but rather animated, insomuch that we were 
resolved to assault both their forts at once." One of them, in 
which was Sassacus the Pequot chief, was so remote that they 



40 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

could not reach it before midnight, so they were " constrained to 
accept of the nearest," being " much grieved thereat." 

Encamping that night at Porter's RocIvS "between the hills," 
they established their outposts, and with the rocks for pillows 
rested themselves after their weary march. Meantime the Pequots 
in their fort were keeping up a great rejoicing until miduight, the 
noise of which was heard by the sentinels. They had seen the 
expedition pass the mouth of tlieir river some days before, and 
supposed that the English had not dared attack them. Hence 
their exultation. 

Two hours before dawn they arose, joined in prayer, and began 
again their silent march, the Indians keeping so far in the rear 
that, upon reaching the foot of the hill, INIason sent for some of 
them to come up to act as guides. Onl}' Uncas and the Niautic 
sachem Wequash appeared, who being asked where the rest were, 
answered, "Behind, exceedingly afraid." Whereat Mason sent 
word to them, " That they should b}' no means fly, but stand at 
what distance they pleased and see whether Englishmen would now 
fight or not " ; a message imbued with the spirit, and almost in 
the language of Hebrew prophecy ; as when Jahaziel said to the 
affrighted hosts of Jehoshaphat, "Ye shall not need to fight in this 
battle ; set 3'ourselves, stand ye still and see the salvation of the 
Lord." 

The fort, though a rude defensive work, was quite formidable ; 
especially so considering the disparit}' in numbers between its 
seven hundred defenders and the seventy-seven assailants. It was 
circular in form, of an acre or two in extent, enclosed b}- trunks 
of trees driven into the ground, some ten or twelve feet in height. 
It contained about seventy wigwams along two streets or lanes, 
and had two openings at opposite sides for entrance and egress, 
which were closed by obstructions of light branches of trees. 

The surprise was complete. The assault was made simultane- 



ORATION. 41 



ously at both entrances, Mason at one and Uuderhill at the other, 
■with about sixteen men each, the remainder being ranged around 
the enclosure to prevent escape, and the Indian allies at a con- 
siderable distance where the}- had a safe point of observation and 
could without danger intercept fugitives with their arrows, which 
the}' did without mercy. 

Capt. Mason on the northeast side was within a rod of the main 
entrance when the barking of a dog in the enclosure gave the 
alarm. Pushing his way through the opening, he found the camp 
in confusion, some of the Indians hiding themselves in their wig- 
wams, others running about and hastily assembling themselves for 
resistance. There was some firing of muskets on one side aud 
shooting of arrows on the other, but without much being accom- 
plished, until Mason, realizing that the only chance his dozen or 
two men had against their seven hundred foes was to take im- 
mediate advantage of the panic, said, " We must burn them," 
and seizing a fire brand from one of the wigwams put it into the 
mats with which they were covered. The wind being from the 
northeast, the fire spread rapidly aud overran the whole enclosure. 
Underbill aud his detachment, being to leeward, were driven out 
by the fllames. Mason, as soon as the whole fort was seen to be 
on fire, withdrew also and joined the reserves who, at a little 
distance, surrounded the stockade. Many of the Pequots were 
burned in their wigwams ; many others, climbing the palisades to 
escape the fire, met death at the muskets of Mason's men or were 
brought down by the Indian allies in the rear of the lines. 

Of the seven hundred Pequots, only seven were taken captive 
and seven escaped. It is not probable that any women or children 
were in the stockade. No mention is made of them in either 
Mason's or Underbill's story of the fight. The only occupants 
of the fort were Pequot warriors, who had gathered here to repel 
Mason if he should land at the mouth of the river as was ex- 



42 THE MA J. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

pected. Their number had been increased the night before the 
fight by the addition of some one hundred and fifty from the stock- 
ade on Fort Hill, in plain sight from this point, a mile or two 
distant, where Sassacus himself was. 

Clearly, this was a bloody day's work ; a day of fire and slaugh- 
ter. It is not altogether pleasant to think of, though two hundred 
and fifty years have passed. At the best, war everywhere, iu all 
its immediate aspects, is repulsive. War is waste. Its wisest 
eeonom}' is often prodigalit}-. It stops not to count with exact- 
ness, nor measures to the line, but scatters with reckless profusion 
and rends its fabrics with tooth and claw. It is well to remember, 
too, that from the beginnings of history, all progress has been iu 
the wake of war, and every forward step in our boasted Christian 
civilization has been in its blood}' footprints. And this was war 
in its worst form ; a war of extermination on the one side, of self 
preservation on the other. It was short, sharp, and decisive, — 
none ever more so. And this is the comforting feature of it. that 
bloody and terrible as it all was, it resulted in an enormous 
saving of human life, and the prevention of barbarities beside 
which what happened here would have seemed but tender mercies. 

It is not strange, however, that long after the event, when the 
■conditions and surroundings were almost forgotten, and civilization 
had begun to ameliorate in some measure the horrors of war, the 
■conduct of the fight should be criticized and the humanity of Capt. 
Mason called in question. It did not occur to Mason's associates, 
•or the General Court under whose orders he acted, that there was 
-any occasion for criticism. Mason made no excuses or explana- 
tions. The enthusiasm with which he was received on his return 
was unstinted; the General Court raised no "Committee on the 
Conduct of the War," but signified its approval thereof and its 
■confidence in INIason by appointing him to the chief militar}' com- 
anand of the colonv- 



OEATION. 43 



Roger Williams, who would surely- have beeu heard from had 
there been any ground for criticism of the transaction on the 
score of inhumanity, afterwards spoke of Capt. Mason, with whom 
he was in controversy, as having been made b}- the Lord " a 
blessed instrument of peace to all New England." 

Capt. Underbill in his narrative of the fight, in a quaint and 
characteristic way anticipates possible criticism: ''It may be 
demanded," he says, '• Why should 3-ou be so furious? (as some 
have said). Should not Christians have more mercy and compas- 
sion? But I would refer you to David's war. When a people is 
grown to such a height of blood and sin against God and man and 
all confederates in the action, then he hath no respect to persons 
but harrows and saws them and puts them to the sword and the 
most terriblest death that may be. Sometimes the Scripture 
declare th that women and children must perish with their parents. 
Sometimes the case alters, but we will not dispute it now. We 
had sufficient light from the Word of God for our proceedings." 
The devout spirit of the Puritan preferred lodging his defence 
upon Scriptural analogies and his own interpretation of them, to 
the more natural and unanswerable appeal to the first law of 
Nature. 

It is not impossible that there are those living within sight of 
this consecrated summit whose narrow view is confined to the 
bloody details of the fight, excluding causes, conditions, and 
results, and whose unreasoning sympathies are wholh' given to the 
savage horde who onl}- received here the measure they meted out ; 
who can see nothing in this passage in our early history upon 
which we may dwell with grateful emotions ; nothing in the char- 
acter of the chief actor in it to awaken our enthusiasm or tax our 
admiration. 

Looking out upon what has resulted from that morning's work 
on this hill, they may, if urged to the confession, admit that the 



44 THE MA J. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

deliverance it accomplislied, the saving of tlie seeds of New- 
England civilization from the hoofs of barbarism, has been of 
some service to manlviud. But they would qualify the admission 
by insisting tliat there was unnecessary bloodshed. For not 
knowing the precise line to which the}' were required to hew on 
the one hand, and might safely stop on the other, they censure 
Mason and liis men. For all the beneficent results that flowed 
from their action, they piously thank God who overrules all things 
to his own glory aud who maketh the wrath of man to praise him. 
It is our function here, while reverently acknowledging the over- 
ruling Providence in histor}' to consider also with reverence and 
gratitude the instruments and methods by which it works. And 
we are here, too, amid these peaceful scenes whose peace was 
bought at such a price, to rememl)er, first of all, that homely 
axiom of common life, that " to have an omelet there must be 
breaking of eggs." 

Was it necessary to meet barbarians with barl)arity, to appl}' the 
burning brand that consigned these seven hundred to destruction? 
Could not the end have been accomplished at a less sacrifice ? Ask 
Pastor Hooker, who at Hartford a fortnight before b}' a formal 
religious ceremou}' had solemnly delivered the staff into Mason's 
hands as the ensign of martial power, entrusting to his protection 
the lives of the colonists. Ask Teacher Stone, chaplain of the 
expedition, whose character and life assure us, even if his calling- 
had not forbidden it, that he would not approve unnecessary blood- 
shed. Ask the afl'righted settlers at Wethersfield, whose husbands 
and brothers had been tortured and slain, and whose daughters 
had been carried into captivity worse than death. Ask Lion 
Gardiner, who from his little fort at Saybrook had seen his men 
ambushed and put to death with horrible torture. Ask the peace- 
loving Roger Williams, who afterwards hailed Mason as " a blessed 
instrument of peace to all New England." Finally, ask John 



ORATION. 45 

Mason himself, staudiug in the midst of overwhehning odds, within 
the very touch of their tomahawks, every wigwam bristling with 
arrows, and only restrained b}' momentary panic from bursting 
forth in a stream of red death upon him and his companions. 
Arrest his hand raised with the burning brand — ask him " cannot 
this sacrifice be avoided ? " He need not speak. The scene itself, 
the conditions and surroundings, above all the first great law of 
nature, make instant answer. 

Does 3-our justification still lag, my peace-preaching brother? 
Lift up your eyes upon the scene spread out before you ; upon 
these grassy hillsides sloping to the river and the sea, upon field 
and meadow waving with ripening harvests, upon farm and cottage, 
the rewards of toil and thrift, upon towns and villages teeming 
with life and humming with industry, upon yonder waters white 
with a commerce that keeps the world's remotest shores in constant 
touch. Slowly broaden j'our view till the tired eye of your fancy 
rests upon the Pacific shores ; gather in the vast intervening spaces 
reclaimed from savagery and waste for the occupation of sixt}' 
million people ; turn the pages of history ; note the growth and 
development of the nation, its beneficent influence in the march of 
human progress, its grand leadership in all that makes for the wel- 
fare of the world, in all that elevates and enobles man. All this 
had not been, had John Mason been less prompt or less resolute. 
Justified by all the existing conditions that influenced his action, 
he has been abundantly vindicated by the process of time, the 
award of history, and the judgment of posterity. 

The practical annihilation of the Pequot garrison assembled 
here was not by any means the end of the perils by which Mason 
and his brave companions were surrounded. At the other Pequot 
camp on Fort Hill was Sassacus with several hundred warriors, now 
maddened to ferocity by the fate of their kindred. An attack from 
them in overwhelming numbers might be momentarily expected. 



46 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

The lueliau allies, with the exception of Uncus, had been found use- 
less ; no help could be expected from them. In his histoiy, Mason 
says : "And thereupon grew many ditficulties. Our provisions and 
ammunition near spent; we in the enemy's country who did far 
exceed us in number, being much enraged ; all our Indians except 
Uucas deserting us ; our pinnaces at a great distance from us and 
when they would come we were uncertain. But as we were con- 
sulting what course to take it pleased God to discover our vessels 
to us before a fair gale of wind, sailing into Pequot harbor to our 
great rejoicing." 

On their way to the boats, being encumbered with their wound- 
ed, twenty in number, they wexe set upon by Sassacus and some 
three hundred Pequots, through whom they painfully fought their 
way to the shore. Here they found their boats, which had been 
brought round from Narragansett Bay by Capt, Patrick of the 
Massachusetts contingent, who, for some reason, was not disposed 
to give Mason's men their own boats, whereupon a contention 
arose between him and Capt. Underbill. It was at length settled 
that the wounded should be taken in the boats, while Mason, with 
twenty of his men already weary with long marches and desperate 
lighting, should proceed on foot to Saybrook. They arrived there 
on Saturday night, the twenty-seventh of May (0. S.), June 7 in 
our calendar, and Mason says were " nobly entertained by Lieut. 
Gardiner and many great guns." 

The Pequot war was practically ended. It had been formally 
declared by the Connecticut General Court on May 1 (O. S.). 
Within ten days Mason had raised his levy of ninety men. On 
the seventeenth he was at Saybrook, remaining there wind-bound 
two days ; on the twentieth he reached Narragansett Bay, kept the 
Sabbath next day on board, was prevented landing by the weather 
till the evening of the twenty-third ; was on the march through 
the twentv-fourth and twentv-fifth ; on the twenty-sixth destroyed. 



ORATION. 47 



the Pequot force on this hill, and on the twent3'-seventh was at 
Saj^brook, having marched the whole distance through an un- 
broken wilderness from Xarragansett Ba}' to the Connecticut River. 
He had received no assistance from Massachusetts or Ph-mouth, 
and the Indian allies, except as guides, had been an incumbrance 
and hindrance. Massachusetts had " raised the wasps," Connec- 
ticut had burned them in their nest. The mischief kindled by 
John Endicott had been quenched by John Mason. 

Since 1633, Massachusetts had been endeaAoring to obtain satis- 
faction from the Pequots for the murder of Stone and his com- 
panions ; with the net result for the four years of fourteen Indians 
killed, a few wigwams burned, some canoes sunk, standing crops 
destroyed, and the Indians encouraged to active hostilities by the 
impotence of these demonstrations against them. 

In April, 1()37, the Pequots attacked Wethersfield. On May 
first Connecticut declared an offensive war. On the twenty-sixth 
she had finished it ; had made an end of the Pequot name and 
nation, saved New England, and established [)eace for forty years. 
If Connecticut has not been so forward as some sister common- 
wealths in raising wasps on this and other occasions, she has been 
behind none in the more difficult task of extinguishing them. 

What followed is graphically described by Bancroft: "The 
vigor and courage displayed by the settlers on the Connecticut in 
this first Indian war in New England struck terror into the savages 
and secured a long period of peace. The infant was safe in its 
cradle, the laborer in the fields, the solitary traveller during the 
night watches in the forest ; the houses needed no bolts, the settle- 
ments no palisades." 

Looking simply at the numbers engaged, the resources of mili- 
tary science displayed, and the duration of the action, the fight on 
this hill takes no rank in the annals of war. Pequot Hill does not 
appear in the list of historic battlefields, nor John Mason's name 



48 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

among the world's great captains. But it is not by the numbers 
engaged, the skill with wliich they are handled, or the stubborn- 
ness of the contest, that the importance of such a struggle and 
triumph as this can be rightl}^ measured. The decisive battles of 
the world have been those on which the fate of races or the destiny 
of nations hung ; the turning points of history. Such were the 
triumph of Arminius that broke the Roman yoke and created 
Germany, the rout of Attila at Chalons that arrested the Hun- 
nish invasion and saved European civilization, the defeat of the 
Saracens by Charles Martel at Tours that turned back the march 
of Mahommedanism over Europe, the battle of Hastings which 
peopled with a new race the British Islands. 

It is the decisive character of such events as these, as shown in 
their results, that gives them their highest importance. No less 
decisive and no less important in its consequences than any of 
them, or than the destruction of the Armada or the Ijattle of 
Waterloo, was the speedy and effective work done by John Mason 
on this hill two hundred and fifty-two years ago. 

A hundred years earlier, a similar tragedy had been eracted on 
a much more terrible scale when the soldiers of Cortez applied the 
torch to the temples which had become the last refuge of the Aztec 
people, and in the ashes of their capital extinguished the Aztec 
race. The triumph of the Spaniard meant for the conquered 
subjugation and slavery. The triumph of the P:uglish Puritan 
meant freedom and peace. 

Upon the departure of Mason and his men, Sassacus and his 
followers, after some debate as to whether they should revenge 
themselves upon the Narragansetts or seek safety in flight, decided 
upon the latter and at once started westward to join the Mohawks 
west of the Hudson. Having killed some white settlers on their 
way, Mason with a force of one hundred and sixty men pursued 
and overtook about three hundred of them near Fairfield, where 



ORATION. 49 



they had taken refuge iu a swamp. Here they were surrounded, 
many of them killed or taken captive, only about sevent}' of them 
escaping, who made their way to the Mohawks. Sassacus was 
soon afterwards killed by the Mohawks, and the Pequot nation 
became extinct. In 1658, the name of the Pequot river was 
changed b}' the General Court to the Thames, and the settlement 
at its mouth to New London. 

Returning to Hartford, Mason was appointed b}' the General 
Court the chief military officer of the colony, with the rank of major, 
which was equivalent to that of major general. This office he held 
for the remainder of his life, thirt^'-five 3-ears. When the fort at 
the mouth of the Connecticut was transferred to the jurisdiction of 
the colony, Mason was placed in command, and removing there 
became one of the first settlers of Saybrook. In 1659, he led in 
the first settlement of Norwich, where he resided until his death in 
1672. During this time he held a great number of public offices of 
the first importance. In her " History of Norwich," Miss Caulkins 
distributes his life on this continent in four portions. He was 
" Lieutenant and Captain at Dorchester five and a half years. Con- 
queror of the Pequots, Magistrate and Major at Windsor twelve, 
Captain of the fort and Commander of the United Colonies at Say- 
brook twelve, Deput}' Governor and Assistant at Norwich twelve." 
He died at Norwich, Jan. 30, 1672. 

To the storj- of Mason's life and public services, distinct as it is 
in outline though scanty in detail, few words are needed in char- 
acterization of the man. It is in that qualit}' or combination of 
qualities that we call balance of mind, a certain intellectual equi- 
poise, that he excels all his contemporaries. A trained soldier, 
his whole life, with the exception of the brief intervals in which he 
was engaged in his sharp and decisive encounters with the Indians, 
was devoted to the pursuits of peace. The thirt^'-five j^ears in 
which he held the chief military command of the colonj' were 



50 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

years of peace. A Puritan of the Puritans, he was no bigot. In 
the din of ecclesiastical controversies with which the colonies were 
filled, his only word was " that we look up to God to help us to 
see our evil and great folly in our needless strife and contention." 
A rigid disciplinarian, he did not hesitate to disobey the orders of 
the General Court in an emergency, in spite of the fate of Grub- 
bendunk. Resolute and undaunted in danger, he was yielding and 
conciliatoi'3' when the danger had passed. With an indomitable 
will that surmounted all obstacles, and courage that could inspire 
his seventy followers to march against seven hundred, he com- 
bined that rare modesty and self forgetfulness of which later 
periods furnished such shining examples in Washington and 
Grant. 

There is no manlier or more heroic figure than this in all our 
Colonial histor}'. As pioneer, soldier, statesman, we cannot too 
greatly honor his memory. So, here, to-daj^, on the spot where, in 
the crisis of New England's fate, his unshrinking courage and 
decisive action determined the destiu}' of an unborn nation, we 
raise the figure that perpetuates in lasting bronze the deliverer of 
New England. But could the dead eyes be endowed with life, 
and the mute lips clothed with language, looking out upon the 
peopled continent and reading that wider tribute to his fame, he 
might well say : Let this be my monument ! Exegi monumentum 
cere jjerennius. 



At the conclusion of the oration, Mr. Dyer introduced the 
poet of the occasion, Thomas 8. Collier, of New Loudon. 



POEM. 51 



POEM. 

Out from the dust and the ashes, 

Wherein we bur}' our dead. 
Often an echo crashes, 

Like the call by a trumpet sped ; 
And deeds that were like the breaking 

Of seas on a rock-bound shore, 
Rush in on the spirit, waking 

An ardor unknown before. 
We feel that the past has spoken ; 

That the men who were mighty here. 
Though they lie in a sleep unbroken, 

Have answered our triumph cheer. 

Here, where the wild flowers cluster, 

And cool from the sweet salt seas. 
The winds of the south-land muster. 

And harvest the song of bees, 
Once there were blows, and the stinging 

Of bullets, whose whistle keen 
The anthem of death was singing 

Through leaves that were fresh and green ; 



52 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

And high through the uight's dark spaces 

The clamor of battle rose, 
And the flames shone bright on the faces 

Of men who were bitter foes. 

The years, like a lierce flood, wielding 

A power that no hand can stay. 
Sweep on with a force unyielding. 

Till the past is swept awa\- ; 
But men who have shared the privation 

That has founded a nation's fame. 
And given their blood as libation. 

Leave behind them more than a name. 
They build for the future, unknowing 

Where the field of triumph lies, 
And the graves that finish the showing 

Of their lives, seem a sacrifice ; 
But the world with purpose is pregnant, 

Each day has its work and needs. 
And acts, not names, are the regnant 

Role that the future reads. 

"Who knows of the men who slumber 

Because of the fight here won ? 
How great or how small the number? 

What deeds of valor were done ? 
Yet on through the forest, lying 

Like a snare before their feet. 
With the wind in the new leaves sighing, 

They marched their foes to meet ; 
Marched on where no foot l^efore them 

Save the bear's or the wolf's had trod, 



POEM. 53 



With the purple deeps high o'er them, 

And anemone stars in the sod. 
These men who had left the beauty 

And light of a love-lit home, 
And died at the shrine of duty. 

That peace with the 3-ears might come ; 
They built with their lives the glory 

And freedom wherein we share ; 
It is ours to emblazon the story, 

And to keep their high fame fair. 

Who were the men that we honor? 

Knights, with their lances at rest? 
Princes, by Fame sought, to don her 

Chaplets of bravest and best? 
Warriors, whose plumes led the battle. 

When from the flame-crested wall 
Loud was the musketry's rattle, 

Louder the cannon made call? 

No ; they were only the toiling 

Sons of the shop and the field, 
Men on whose hands was the soiling 

Privation and labor will yield ; 
Yet when the call for this sounded. 

Knights, aye, and princes were they. 
Holding a faith strongly founded, 

Ready for ambush or fray. 
On through the wilderness, lying 

Where the forest kings rose high. 
And the shadows thrilled with the sighing 

Of echoes that whispered by, 



54 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

The}" trod with a steru precision, 
As though the triumph was sure, 

Aud the}' saw, as one sees in a vision, 
That they should increase, and endure. 

The years have their seed and fruition. 

Men who are rulers of time. 
Strong for each day's high mission. 

Fused in a mould sublime ; 
Not theirs to stand idly waiting, 

Far from the fields of strife. 
Even though scorn and hating 

Surge round each troubled life ; 
For like the far stars o'er us. 

Moving through cycles vast. 
With the grand and resonant chorus. 

They sang in the mighty past, 
Deeds that mankind must be doing. 

Come with the years that fly. 
Always their end pursuing, 

P>en though myriads die : 
Man is the sword of the Maker. 

He who is ruler of man, 
He is the moulder, or breaker, 

He is boundless and we are a span. 

The rocks and the hills never perish, 
For they are the work of the Lord, 

And so are the deeds that men cherish. 
Strong marks of the plough or the sword : 

Each century keeps in its holding 
A purpose that cannot be stayed. 



POEM. 

And days, months, and years are uufolding 
A record the ages have made. 

Give them honor and praise and rejoicing, 

These men who were steadfast and strong ; 
The wide land their courage is Voicing, 

From orchards now ringing with song ; 
From factories filled with the clamor 

Of engines and looms never still ; 
From shops where the loud-sounding hammer 

With the red mass of ore works its will ; 
From shores where the white sails are gleaming ; 

From marts where the world comes to trade ; 
From broad streams with rich commerce teeming ; 

From plain, mountain, hillside, and glade ; 
From homes where love reigns with the olden 

Fnchantment of beauty and trust ; 
From farms where the wheat-fields are golden. 

And only the sword gathers rust : 
They sleep, but the nation is keeping 

Their fame as a record and sign ; 
They sowed what our hands now are reaping, 

The harvests of honey and wine ; 
And never the meed of their labor 

In swift years shall lack fame or increase. 
For they wrought with the musket and sabre 

The glory and gladness of peace. 



65 



66 THE MAJ. JOHN MASON STATUE. 

The Rev. G. H. Miner, of Mystic River, then delivered the 
benediction, after which Colt's Band played a patriotic selection. 

The procession then re-formed, the Governor and his staff re- 
viewing the same, and the line of march for the return was taken 
up, the militia being dismissed at the central part of the village, 
where a collation had been arranged for them in a large hall. The 
Governor and his staff, and the other guests of the Commission, 
partook of a dinner at the Hoxie House, and at five the visitors 
took their trains for home, and the memorial was complete. 



APPENDIX. 



The Connecticut Historical Society, 

Hartford, Conn., Juue 24, 1889. 

Dear Sir, — My delay in ackuowledgiug the invitatiou from 
your honorable committee to be present at the unveiling of Mason's 
monument is certainly not due to a lack of appreciation of the 
compliment nor to a failure to understand in a measure the high 
significance, of the event. I had hoped to be present at the 
exercises from the time when, a year ago, our society visited the 
site of the Pequot fort and Mason's camp at Porter's Rocks. 
But I am obliged reluctantly to give it up, as I must be here that 
day. 

To me there is no more interesting or picturesque deed in all 
Connecticut history than Mason's expedition, if I except the meet- 
ing of Washington, Trumbull, Lafayette, Count Rochambeau, and 
others on the spot where I am now writing, which meeting re- 
sulted in the Yorktown campaign and the overthrow of British 
power. It always stirs me deeply when I think of that May morn- 
ing in '37 : the little army of 90 men bidding good-bye to 
wives, mothers, and sisters down on our "Dutch Point"; or, 
gathered perhaps in the " Meeting-house Yard " or in the " Little 



58 APPENDIX. 

Meadow," listening while Thomas Hooker exalted their spirits, 
blessed their bodies, and exhorted their souls. What a mountain 
of faith must have been in the prayers of that company, when the 
three tiny ships slipped away from the improvised wharf and 
sailed down the Connecticut, bearing away to what must have 
seemed a veritable "Land of Divels " brave Mason, "New 
England's radieut Crowne." Pastor Stone, and a large portion of 
the men of the little colony, including, may I add, one or more of 
my mother's ancestors in the company. It was almost sublime in 
daring, heroic in achievement 

The state does well to build memorials to Hooker, and Davenport, 
and Mason. She adds to her dignity, and increases her honor and 
respect in the family of states by taking an active part in such 
celebrations as this, and the adoption of her, and the world's, first 
written constitution. The money is well spent, and will bear fruit 
in an object lesson not lost on us, youngsters and men of a later 
but, thank God ! quieter day. 

I trust our society will be represented by one or more of its 
officers, on Wednesday. With regrets that I cannot be there. I 
have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

Frank B. Gay, 
Secretarr/ and Librarian Conn. Hist. Society. 



APPENDIX. 59 



AuBLRNDALE, Mass., Juiie 25, 1889. 

Gentlkmen, — Your invitation to the librarian of the New- 
England Historic Genealogical Society to attend the unveiling 
of Capt. Mason's statue comes tardily to my hands as chairman 
of its Library Committee. Our library just now has no librarian. 
We should be glad to be represented on so interesting an occasion, 
but it is not possible. Please be sure, however, that our interest 
in your work and its successful completion is most heart}'. Con- 
necticut honors herself and New England in such a memorial, as 
she has done in her recent Putnam monument. It is to be hoped 
that other states will emulate so good an example. 
Yours very trul}', 



Henry M. Hazen. 



Cabinet of the Rhode-Island Historical Society, 

Providence, R.I., .June 19, 1889. 

Messrs. C. A. WiUidins, Charles E. Dyer, and Richard A. Wheeler y 
Coramissiouers, etc. : 
Gentlemen, — I thank you for an invitation to attend the 
ceremonies at the unveiling of the statue in honor of Capt. John 
IMason and his comrades on Pequot Hill, Mystic, Conn., the 2(jth 
instant, and regret that a previous engagement at Cambridge, 
Mass., will prevent my participating in the pleasures of that most 
interesting occasion. This society would, if it could, extend its 
cordial salutations to the citizens of Connecticut who have by this 
movement made an enduring record of heioic action for the cause 
of civilization and humanit}'. 

Very respectfully, 

Amos Perky, Secretary aud Librarian. 



60 APPENDIX. 



Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, June 19, 1889. 

Gentlemen, — A few clays ago I received, as librarian of tlie 
Pilgrim Society, your invitation to be present at tlie unveiling of 
the statue erected to the memory of Gen. John Mason, the hero 
of the war with the Pequots, or as our Pilgrim Gov. Bradford 
styled them, the Pequents. It will doubtless be an interesting 
occasion, and although I shall not be able to be present, j'et I 
thank you for the invitation. In our early colonial records I find 
the following, which may be of interest to you : — 

" 1637. At the Gen'all Court of o'' Sou'"aigne Lord, the Kinge, 
holden at New Plymouth the vij"^ Da}' of June, in the xiij"' Yeare 
of the Raigue of our Sou'"aigne Lord, Charles, by the Grace of 
God of England, Scotland, France, & Ireland, Kinge, Defender 
of the Fayth, &c. Before 

William Bradford, gent., Gounor, Captaine Miles Standish, 

Edward Winslow, Timothy Hatherley, and 

Thomas Prence, John Jenney, gentlemen, 

iustice of the peace of o'' soiiaigne lord the kinge, and assistants 
in the goument. 

"It is concluded and enacted by the Court, that the colony of 
New Plymouth shall send forth ayd to assist them of Massa- 
chusetts Bay and Conectacutt in their warrs against the Pequin 
Indians in reveng of the innocent blood of the English w"^ the 
s'^ Pequins haue barliarously shed, and refuse to give satisfatTon 
for. 

"It is also enacted by the Court, that there shall! )e thirty 
psons sent for land service, and as many others as shalbe suffi- 
cient to mauuage the barque. 

" Lieftennant William Holmes is elected to goe leader of the 
said company. 

" Mr. Thomas Prence is also elected by lott to l)e for the 
counsell c^f warr. and to soe forth w"' them." 



APPENDIX. 61 



Then follow the names of forty soldiers who williugly offered 
their services to go upon the said service, with three others who 
^^ will goe if they be prest.'" 

Again thanking you for the invitation, 
I am, 3'ours, etc., 

Thomas Bradford Drew. 
To Messrs. WiUiams, Dyer, and Wh^eJer, Commissioners. 

P.S. — I said that Gov. Bradford styled that tribe of Indians 
the Pequents. He does so in his history ; but this Court record has 
still another name, — " Pequins." 



XoKWiCH, Conk., June 15, 1889. 

Messrs. C A. Williams, Charles Dyer, and Richard A. Wheeler: 
Dear Sirs, — Your kind invitation requesting my attendance at 
the ceremonies to be held on Tequot Hill, Mystic, Conn., on 
Wednesda}', the 2Gth instant, at the unveiling of the statue erected 
in memory of Capt. John Mason and his comrades, is received. 

As a lineal descendant of early settlers in Plymouth Colony, 
whose names are honorably recorded in the early history of New 
England among those engaged in the wars waged by whites against 
the Indians in defense of their homes, their families, and their 
posterity ; with not a drop of any but Yankee blood coursing 
through my veins, I take a lively interest in any event commem- 
orative of the valor of those men who, by their strength and manly 
courage, and with their own right hands, hewed out a home for us 
who have come after them, in which we may dwell in peace and 
security, with none to molest or make us afraid ; and particularly 



62 APPENDIX. 



as the near frieud of one, now gone from us, who took so active 
an interest in instituting the movement, and, while living, did so 
much towards accomplishing the object, the culmination of which 
is the event to be celebrated, do I feel especially honored by your 
invitation, which is gratefully acknowledged. 

AVith these feelings, I shall endeavor to be present on the happy 
occasion, and participate in the ceremonies mentioned. 

Very truly yours, 

8. S. Thkesher. 



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Maj. John Mason 



STATUE. 



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